According to the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, this thesis is promoted by Russian propaganda. In particular, according to Russian State Duma deputy Matveichev, "Putin deliberately creates for Ukraine and the West a sense of their imminent victory. The latter will not strike decisive blows yet, but will continue to create the illusion as if a little more and Russia is defeated." "According to the "expert", such a strategy will force the measure to provide all possible weapons to Ukraine. After that, Russia will "dispose of all NATO weapons" and "deliver a decisive blow." The population of Russia "should understand this and fully trust the commander-in-chief. But in reality, these theses are only used by Russian propaganda to try to justify military defeats with the Russian Federation in front of its own population, first of all in the North of our country, from which the enemy has disgracefully retreated," reported in the Сenter. Thus, Russia is also trying to create the illusion of controlling the situation, and by reporting that Russia still has not delivered a decisive blow, propaganda is trying to justify the defeat of the Russian army.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, this thesis is spread in the media by Russian propagandists and, in particular, by foreign ex-officials, not for the first time supporting Russia and its aggressive policies. For example, former New Zealand Foreign Minister Matt Robson thanked Russia for standing up to NATO. According to the Center, an "expert" from New Zealand in the English-language news segment spreads the propaganda thesis of Russia that "NATO has always wanted to encircle Russia and China." "On April 29, a number of New Zealand media outlets published a commentary by M. Robson in which he expresses gratitude to Russia for the war with NATO in Ukraine in a manipulative manner. Since the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, M. Robson has regularly made such statements, completely repeating the disinformation narratives of Russia's leaders. In February and March, the former Foreign Minister of New Zealand stated that "NATO provoked the Putin. In April, Robson repeatedly stated that "NATO had promised not to expand its geographic presence. In reality, only Russia unleashed the war on the territory of Ukraine and NATO had nothing to do with it.

This is the information spread by the Russian media. Their message says that by this cutoff, Ukraine gave up part of the territory that was temporarily occupied by the Russians. This is a lie. In fact, it was the Russians who cut off communications and the Internet in the Kherson and part of the Zaporozhye regions, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine said in a telegram.

On April 30, residents of Kherson and part of Zaporizhzhia regions first felt interruptions with the Internet and mobile communications, then these services disappeared in significant areas. It became known that the reasons for the lack of communication were fiber-optic trunk lines breaking and the blackout of operators' equipment in these regions. "The problems that occurred simultaneously at all mobile operators, as well as providers of fixed Internet services, are nothing but another attempt by the occupant to leave Ukrainians without access to truthful information about the course of the war that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine; and to make its false propaganda a source of information without alternative, as it is done in Russia itself," the State Service for Special Communications said in a statement.

Ukrainian authorities have always advocated maximum access to means of communication for Ukrainians. And the National Center for Operational and Technical Management of Telecommunications Networks (NCM) at tate Service for Special Communications both before the war and at the beginning of the invasion expressed an unambiguous position of the state - operators must provide Ukrainians with communication and access to information.

"Cutting off Ukrainian communications, as well as the introduction of the aggressor country's currency and the forced payment of taxes by businesses to the occupation entity, should create at least the appearance of the existence of a new quasi-establishment for domestic Russian consumption. And against this background to feed the Russians with fake results of a likely fake referendum, - noted in the tate Service for Special Communications . - Ukraine will never abandon its citizens to the mercy of fate. Our defenders drove the enemy troops out of Kyiv region, Sumy region and Chernihiv region, they will drive them out of other regions. All occupied territories within the internationally recognized borders of our country will be sacked."

All Ukrainians who are in the occupied areas are asked to move to other regions if possible. They urge everyone to be careful and not to put themselves in danger. In case the Russians have disabled Ukrainian broadcasting, communications and the Internet, it is possible to listen to Ukrainian radio on medium waves (1278, 1404, 873, 657 kHz) using old receivers. Also Ukrainian channels are decoded on satellite: Satellite: Hotbird 13; Frequency: 11219 MHz; Polarization: H(horizontal); Symbol Rate: 29900; Error Correction: FEC 3/5.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with Xinhua news agency that 1.02 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine to Russia since February 24, including more than 120,000 third-country nationals, including more than 300 Chinese citizens.

He said the hotline of the Russian Federation's Interagency Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response had received a request for assistance to evacuate 2.8 million people to Russia, 16,000 of whom were foreign nationals and personnel of international UN and OSCE missions.

His statement was disseminated by a number of foreign media outlets, including Reuters. In fact, Lavrov isn't telling the truth.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 5.3 million refugees left Ukraine after Russia invaded. Most of them went to Poland - more than 2.9 million. More than 801,000 people left for Romania, more than 647,000 for Russia, 507,000 for Hungary, more than 439,000 for Moldova, more than 363,000 for Slovakia and more than 24,000 for Belarus.

Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Serhii Kyslytsia, said that more than 500,000 Ukrainians, of whom 121,000 were children, were forcibly removed to Russia from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. He noted that about 20,000 Ukrainians are being held in filtration camps on the Mangush - Nikolskoye - Yalta line and about 5,000-7,000 in Bezimenne in the Donetsk region.

Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said that after the camps, Ukrainians are taken by bus to Taganrog, Russia, and from there they are transported by train to Omsk and Tomsk regions and the Perm region of Russia. There are cases of Ukrainians being taken to Sakhalin.

"Unfortunately, we have no lists of these people. There are only individual testimonies of relatives or people themselves who called our hotline and told us that they were forcibly removed and they are there in some kindergarten in the city of Taganrog, sleeping on the floor... Well all these horrors of their movements as long as they have communication," Denisova said, responding to a question from Radio Liberty about the availability of lists of Ukrainians taken out to Russia.

According to her, some time after crossing the border with Russia, communication with the taken out is broken, their phone is taken away from them and "they are given a view that they cannot leave the territory of the Russian Federation home for two years." The Russian side does not allow or shoot up humanitarian corridors from the blockaded towns, including Mariupol. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, thousands of people - military and civilians - remain blockaded in Mariupol. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk added that the Russians do not want to go to any negotiations on the Azovstal enterprise, where there are more than a thousand women, children and more than 500 wounded. "Now it is impossible to go there, much less create a humanitarian corridor: Russia is bombing, rocketing, shelling the approaches," she said.

The Russian Defense Ministry stated that "in Sviatogorsk, Donetsk region, militants of nationalist battalions have deployed artillery on the territory of the Svyatogorsk Lavra monastery, and civilians are being held as 'human shields.'" Such warnings were issued by the Russians before the bombing. Earlier, the Russians carried out airstrikes on a maternity hospital and the Drama Theater in Mariupol, where Azov fighters were allegedly present.

Russians shelled the Sviatogorsk Lavra of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Donetsk region on March 12, 2022. At that time, the force of the explosion blew out window frames in the churches, and windows and doors in Lavra's hotels were broken. There were 520 refugees in Lavra, including 200 children and brothers of the monastery. They were evacuated to the monastery cellars.

After the explosion, Metropolitan Arseniy of Sviatogorsk, vicar of the Lavra, recorded a video appeal, in which he called on everyone in charge to stop bombing peaceful people in the peaceful cities of Ukraine. He did not name the perpetrators of the war - the Russian military and Putin.

The last time the Russians shelled the city of Sviatogorsk was on the morning of April 27, the chairman of the Sviatogorsk community, Volodymyr Bandura, said. He asked residents of the community to temporarily evacuate by free buses and trains, as the situation in the city was tense and explosions could be heard in the outskirts.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, this is the thesis spread by Russian propaganda with reference to the speaker of the Russian State Duma, Volodin. The propaganda claims that today's Kyiv leadership is a country in a debt hole"" and ""many future generations of Ukrainian citizens will pay for all the ammunition, equipment and food the U.S. will supply.

"'This statement is a deliberate manipulation. Under the terms of the lend-lease program, Ukraine could receive potentially unlimited support from the U.S. and other countries, not only for weapons, ammunition and equipment, but also for medicine, food and other necessities, all while bypassing export controls. Under the terms of the program, used military equipment can be written off, and no payment can be made for destroyed equipment. The lend-lease agreement will supplement Congress' preliminary defense support for Ukraine, which has already received $1.7 billion in military aid authorized since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion," the center said in a statement. Russian propaganda benefits from spreading such messages, because it allegedly levels aid for Ukraine from allied countries and to some extent discredits them, saying that because of their aid Ukrainians will be left in debt.

The Russian mass media are spreading news with the headlines "Not discussed" and its variants, which have to refer to French President Emanuel Macron that the embargo on Russian gas is not discussed in Europe.

In fact, this is manipulation: first, Macron, in an interview with Corriere della Sera said that the issue of gas may not be on the table in the EU (or maybe not) "This issue that may be on the table, but not yet today. Coal and oil are already being negotiated, gas is not yet. We know what enormous difficulties it causes. That's why you've been hearing me insist on European energy sovereignty for years.

Secondly, the gas embargo is constantly being negotiated in the EU. Yes, Macron himself insists that France supports this embargo and does not actually depend on Russian gas. Lithuania has already completely abandoned Russian gas, even Germany, which has been increasing its dependence on Russian gas for the last 8 years, is planning to do this next year (although Germany and Hungary are the two countries most likely to vote against the gas embargo proposal this year, should such a project appear on the EU ballot. So giving up Russian gas is one of the issues constantly being discussed in the EU - and some countries are already refusing to use oil and gas from Russia on their own.

Anonymous telegram channels have spread the message that postwar Ukraine will be a poor agrarian country, losing its mineral deposits and its position on the raw materials market. DiXi Group analyst Serhii Yevtushok thinks the theses are manipulative. "On the contrary, there is reason to argue that it is highly likely that Ukraine will get an even bigger boost in the development of the extractive sector in relation to minerals such as uranium, titanium and other critical mineral products after the war is over," he said. The analyst added that over the past few years Ukraine has been developing programs for exploration and production of critical minerals and a list of them has been determined. The National Program for Development of the Mineral Resource Base of Ukraine until 2030 was updated in 2021, which provides for permanent financing of geological exploration and increase of production of critical minerals. Also signed a memorandum with the EU, according to which Ukraine will attract investment for the development of the industry of critical raw materials, primarily for the production of batteries.

"Given the sanctions and the withdrawal of many companies, including service companies, the raw materials extracted from Russia will eventually become uncompetitive and will be forced out of the world markets. And the development of Ukrainian subsoil will allow, over time, to replace Russia's niche in the market," he summarized.

This is the thesis disseminated by Russian propaganda media, claiming that in Ukrainian Mykolaiv utilities are not working yet and there is no water supply. In such reports, Russian media and telegram channels refer to sources in the Russian Ministry of Defense. In fact, the water situation in Mykolaiv is not yet the best, but the propagandists' claim of an epidemiological disaster is a manipulation. According to the Mykolaiv city council, as a result of Russian bombardment since the beginning of the war, the CCP " Mykolaivvodokanal" suffered damage of almost 12 million hryvnia. The sewage treatment facilities, the water pipeline and three sewage pumping stations were damaged. From the shelling of the Russian marauders seriously injured the employee of the enterprise, the team works daily in a high-risk environment to restore the comfort of the citizens. That is, the water problem in the city arose not because of the negligence of Ukrainian utility workers, but because of the shelling and bombing of the Russian army, which is doing everything to destroy the Ukrainian infrastructure. According to the city council, in Mykolaiv, residents are distributed water to different districts of the city, so we are not talking about a catastrophe yet.

The thesis of this is dispersed by Russian propagandists. In particular, Vladimir Solovyov reports in his telegram channel that Ukraine has decided to abolish May 9, and in confirmation of this, he adds a document allegedly registered in the Verkhovna Rada. law, according to which May 8 is the Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism, and May 9 is a working day. people's deputies registered April 18 the bill actually proposes to celebrate the Memorial Day of all victims of Nazism during World War II, May 8 and 9 with other EU countries to celebrate Europe Day, not yet adopted.

According to State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, for decades now, May 9 has been the focus of the new fascist ideology of the Russian state. It is safe to say that most of today's Russian national identity is based on the victory in World War II, which Russia attributes exclusively to itself. All ideas of Russian exceptionalism, "God-given right to rule" and Russian imperial superiority over other nations have been carefully constructed from the foundation of that same victory, turning what should be a celebration of life and peace into a macabre ritual. We don't want to be a part of it," the agency said.

This is the information spread by the Russian propaganda media. In particular, the publication RIA-news, as well as - pro-Russian telegrams on channels. The reports say that the euro exchange rate "fell" and the Russian ruble "strengthened" because Europeans seem to pay for gas in rubles. The Center for counteraction to disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council denies such information.

"The new scheme that Putin tried to sell to the EU countries provides for the buyers to open a new foreign currency and ruble account with Gazprombank. That is, European countries have to pay for gas to a "passthrough" company, which would convert the currency into rubles and transfer the "wood" to Gazprom's account. Most EU countries refused to participate in such a "scheme. In particular, Italy and Germany - the largest consumers of Russian gas in Europe - refused to pay in rubles, arguing that it contradicted the terms of existing contracts. Among the "European buyers," Hungary and Moldova agreed to the Kremlin's gamble," according to the Center.

Social networks are actively spreading information that allegedly the World Bank and the UN are arguing about how many poor people Ukraine will have by the end of 2022. There are only two variants: 70 or 90%. According to VoxCheck, such statements about disputes are manipulation, because it is impossible to compare the estimates of the World Bank and the UN. The fact is.

The World Bank indicates that the poverty rate in Ukraine may reach 70% in 2022 by the national poverty rate. For comparison, the World Bank indicates that in 2021 the figure was 18%. The UNDP, the U.N. Development Program is looking at four possible scenarios, the worst of which could see the level of those living below the poverty line and those who could cross it reach 90.5% if the war drags on during the next year. "Of that 90.5%, the UN worst-case scenario puts 28% below the poverty line and 62.5% likely to cross the poverty line. Before the war the UN estimated that 2% of Ukraine's population lived below the poverty line and 43.4% could cross the poverty line According to the three other UN scenarios, the level of those living below the poverty line and those who could cross the poverty line could be 53.8% (4.2% below the poverty line and 49.7% could cross the line), 60.9% (6.4% and 54.5% respectively) or 64.5% (9% and 55.5%). The UN takes the international poverty rate - $5.5/day ( for those who can cross the poverty line - $5.5 to 13/day) - rather than the national rate, as the World Bank does. , the forecast is based on a time when there was still active fighting in the north of Ukraine. However, the course of the war is changing daily, so it is difficult to make any predictions at such an early stage," the fact checkers say.

Information about this is actively spreading in social networks. They say that since April 18, Ukrainians to cross the border with the countries of the European Union in the war must have a foreign passport. They say that, except in rare cases, they will no longer be able to travel with their internal Ukrainian documents. As the fact-checkers of the "Lozhnik" project write, such messages are spreading in particular in the Volyn segment of Facebook. Information that Ukrainians will now cross the border only with a foreign passport and indeed appeared in the media, however, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the possibility of crossing the border by citizens of Ukraine on internal passports continued. "This decision was made, given the situation on the territory of Ukraine during martial law, when the citizens of Ukraine can not quickly and timely issue a passport of a citizen of Ukraine to travel abroad (foreign passport)," - assure the Ministry. They add that it is due to humanitarian circumstances and the previously reached agreements with neighboring countries, the employees of the border department will pass citizens of Ukraine, including with the internal passport document. This applies to all citizens, regardless of the regions from which they are coming. That is, as of April 20, Ukrainians can travel abroad without a passport.

This information is spread in the propaganda media and telegram channels. Propagandists claim that the U.S. will not be able to replace Russian gas supplies to the EU if Russia stops doing so. However, this is manipulation. According to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, the total volume of liquefied gas production in the USA makes 120 billion cubic meters a year, and by 2025 it will increase by another 70 billion cubic meters. Projects with a combined production of 206 billion cubic meters of gas have already received federal permits in the U.S. Last month, European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen announced an agreement with Joe Biden under which the U.S. will increase additional supplies of liquefied gas to the EU to 50 billion cubic meters a year. These supplies will gradually replace EU imports from Russia, which last year totaled 155 billion cubic meters of gas. The task set by Europe to eliminate dependence on Russian gas is designed to level out the intentions of the Russian leadership to use energy supplies to the EU as leverage," the Center said in a statement.

Messages with such content are distributed in pro-Russian telegram channels. In particular, such messages can be found on the "Skooy Woman" channel. The authors of the text seem to be asking what awaits Ukraine and the Ukrainians, when Russian troops start bombing thermal power plants or power lines, or destroying coal reserves. Thus, the authors lead to the idea that the enemy has not yet done the worst in Ukraine, because so far he allegedly does not destroy infrastructure facilities, but only "" Ukraine itself undermines its own bridges. There is also an element of intimidation in such reports, saying that Russia's real war against Ukraine has not even started yet, and that you "dread to think" what will happen when Russia does to Ukraine what we did to Crimea. For example, cutting off electricity and spicy water." In fact, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, February 24, Russia has been striking Ukrainian infrastructure facilities: these include oil towers, TV towers, airports, railway stations and tracks. The enemy is targeting facilities not only in those cities where combat operations are ongoing, but also in conditionally peaceful ones in the west of the country. In addition to the enemy destroying Ukrainian facilities, the Russian military also massively abuses civilians in Ukraine. Another claim regarding Ukraine's bullying of Crimean residents is crude manipulation like the messaging that the war began as a result of "'the Ukrainian government has been bullying the inhabitants of Donbass for eight years. Read more about such messages in the text of Media Detector.

Anonymous pro-Kremlin telegram channels spread a video allegedly showing a soldier of one of the brigades of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine complaining about non-payment of salaries. The command of the Airborne Assault Troops of the AFU denied this information, noting that it was a discredit attempt, "containing elements of hybrid information warfare and all signs of information and psychological influence." "All information or possible problematic questions of service and social nature that come from our soldiers - the leadership of the military units and the command of the Airborne Assault Troops of the Armed Forces of Ukraine - are immediately taken for consideration and appropriate measures are taken," the Command reported and added that their units "are provided with ultramodern weapons and combat equipment, all the necessary material means."

"Media Detector" asked for a comment from the brigade referred to in the video. Note that the thesis of "non-payment of salaries to the Ukrainian military" is not the first time spread since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine - for example, read about the fake "Ukraine does not pay salaries to the military.

This is how readers are attracted to newly-formed telegram channels, writes the Spooner Project. The user seems to be exclusively invited to a closed channel, where "what cannot be shown on the main channel is published. In addition, the time of joining and the number of places in the channel are limited. In fact, it's just an ordinary subscription to a regular channel. Read more about Telegram manipulation

Anonymous telegram channels write that the Crimean Tatars are not staging protests against the occupiers, which the authorities allegedly expected them to do, and only Ukrainians are against it. Thus, the propagandists are trying to manipulate the opinion about Crimea and contrast the two peoples. Representatives of the Crimean Tatar community in Kherson Oblast and Crimea are systematically persecuted for resisting the occupants. On March 6, Crimean Tatars staged a protest in Novoalekseevka, Kherson Oblast. The Russians, on the other hand, conduct searches and detain activists, such as on April 15, Ukrinform writes. The Crimean Human Rights Group reminded that about 230 political prisoners are already serving sentences in prisons in Crimea, while throughout Russia this figure is ten times higher.

The Russian media and pro-Kremlin telegram channels are reporting en masse that U.S. President Joe Biden is suffering from health problems, which is why he will not visit Ukraine. He seems to be a "puppet" and the country is run by those who are in the shadow of his "sick figure".

Such fakes intensified after Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin's actions in Ukraine genocide and that the US president was ready to come to Ukraine.

On 14 April, at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Joe Biden said that he was ready to personally come to Ukraine.

Later, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Joe Biden is "ready for anything," he is "ready to go to Ukraine. That's right. He is," but so far the White House is not sending the president to Ukraine.

She said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson made the eight-hour train ride "through a war zone" to get to central Ukraine. "So no, that's not part of the United States president's plan. We should all, perhaps, feel relieved about that. He's got a few more things to do," Psaki stated.

In March 2022, Biden visited Poland and the town of Rzeszow near the Ukrainian border. He expressed disappointment that he could not enter the country to see the consequences of the Russian invasion.

On April 14, U.S. Senator Steve Daines and members of the House of Representatives Victoria Spartz visited Kiev and its suburbs that have been occupied by Russian troops on Thursday, becoming the first U.S. officials to visit since the war began.

The Russian media have been reporting en masse over the past two days, April 14 and 15, that Greece has refused to supply weapons to Ukraine. On April 14, they referred to a statement by Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panayiotopoulos, and on April 15 to a statement by government spokesman Yanis Oikonomos. Both statements are interpreted in favor of supporting Russia, but this is not the case. First, Greece has already supplied Ukraine with weapons - Kalashnikov assault rifles and mobile anti-missile systems - and has no plans to do so in the future. Secondly, the defense minister explained that because of tense relations with Turkey, Greece could not supply Ukraine with additional weapons without risking weakening its own defense capabilities. Finally, Oikonomou's statement is related to publications in the Greek press, which claim that Greece has supplied weapons to Ukraine six times, and started doing so before the war began. It seems that Greece transferred "Stingers" and other weapons to NATO bases in Europe, and from there the weapons were already supplied to Ukraine. Oikonomou, answering questions from local journalists, stressed that Greece provided weapons to Ukraine once, after the start of the war - and actually refuted the inaccurate information.

Greece has also repeatedly stated that although no further arms supplies to Ukraine are planned, the country is trying to reduce its need for Russian gas as soon as possible. That is, statements by Greek officials do not indicate that their government supports Russia and its wars in Ukraine.

At the same time, both Ukrainian and Russian media selectively quote the results of a survey of Greek citizens, citing only the figure indicating that 66% of them are against arms supplies to Ukraine. But they don't cite other figures: 70% support Ukraine in this war, 60% support sanctions against Russia, 52% are in favor of creating an EU armed force.

This thesis is disseminated by Russian media, citing alleged statements by American military expert Andreas Weber and U.S. military analyst Trent Telenok. The Center for Countering Disinformation reported that in fact the experts' quotes were taken out of context. "The main purpose is to create a false impression that Weber and Telenko support Russia's actions and analyze Russia's military achievements. In reality, the mentioned experts in the information space support the Armed Forces of Ukraine and comment on the actions of the Russian army in a negative context. The enemy uses mythologization to make the Russian population believe that the Russian army heroically accomplished all tasks," the Center explained.

This manipulative thesis was spread by former MP Oleh Tsarev, who fled to Russia and pro-Russian telegram channels. In fact, back in February 2021, it was Victor Medvedchuk and his wife Oksana Marchenko who were sanctioned for financing terrorism. Medvedchuk is not a hostage - he was announced suspicions and the court selected preventive measures in criminal proceedings for oil and gas extraction in the Black Sea and for facilitating the activities of a terrorist organization through the supply of coal from the occupied territories of Donbass. He should be under house arrest, but Medvedchuk fled his estate at the beginning of Russia's large-scale aggression against Ukraine. In addition, Tsaryov tries to present the proposal to exchange Medvedchuk for Ukrainian defenders captured by Russia as "proof" that "there is a civil war going on in Ukraine. This is refuted even by the Russian government, which, although it still calls the war in Ukraine a "special operation," confirms the presence of Russian troops on Ukrainian territory.

This assertion is spreading en masse on social networks. In particular, the posts quote an excerpt from an interview of a "refugee from Ukraine" to Spanish television, in which he allegedly admits the torture of civilians by Ukrainian border guards. According to StopFake, the video begins with a guest in a news program on the Antena television channel saying that he and eight other men on the border between Ukraine and Poland allegedly "wanted to be beaten" by Ukrainian border guards. Based on this statement, network users write that Oleh - that is the name of the program's guest - confirms the torture of civilians by Ukrainian "security forces". However, as the fact checkers point out, the circulating excerpt of the interview is taken out of context and misleads network users. "From the full version of Oleh's interview we learn that the man had already made several unsuccessful attempts to leave Ukraine at the time of the interview. According to him, he and several other men tried to cross first the Ukrainian-Hungarian border and then the Ukrainian-Polish border through different checkpoints, but Ukrainian border guards refused him the right to leave Ukraine. He claims that he could not leave the country for 6 days because of the actions of the officers of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, who sent him for questioning, behaved very rudely to him, threw his passport in his face, etc. In fact, the actions of the border guards complied with the norms of the Ukrainian wartime legislation, and the statement about the order not to let all the men leave the country was not true at all," the fact checkers wrote. More details.

Information that these banks have cancelled credit vacations for their customers is spreading in social networks, in particular in telegram channels. The message says that these banks are now writing off interest on loans, driving Ukrainians into "minus". However, as the fact checker of the project "Spooner" found out, this is a manipulation. "Credit vacations are preferential terms of the contract, when customers have the right not to make the mandatory minimum payment, which is especially relevant in the case of being in a war zone or due to loss of income. PrivatBank's credit vacations for credit cards are valid till June 1, 2022. So, we can conclude that the credit vacations - it is preferential terms of the contract, when customers have the right not to make the mandatory minimum payment, the bank will not penalize for late payments, but they do not mean the absence of interest for the use of credit funds. We also could not find information on the cancellation of credit vacations on the Monobank's website," write the fact checkers.

PrivatBank explained that it continues to be fully responsible for the deposits of Ukrainians regardless of the circumstances and adds that the standard terms of the card grace period remain unchanged. "Credit vacations do not mean no interest for the use of credit funds," explains the speaker of PrivatBank Dokia Kuzmenko. However, in addition to the "vacations," in March PrivatBank set a credit rate of 0.001%, practically making the use of credit funds free. "We did this to support all of our customers and being aware of the more pressing problems facing the country. Our bank and customers understand that the banking system has to work to provide a front and a rear. The economic front is also very important to winning. And that's why, as of April 1, we partially brought back some rates, while reducing them from the pre-war level. For example, now we set the preferential credit rate at 1.7%, which is half as much as before the war. Interest will still be charged in May, but repayment will not be obligatory until June 1 under the credit vacations," the bank explained to the fact checkers. Accordingly, the message that banks canceled the credit vacations and accrued interest, which "drive Ukrainians into deficit," is now a manipulation.

According to the Center for Counteracting Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, such information about Russia's alleged "victory" in the war in Ukraine is actively spread by propagandists.

"To spread this thesis, the Kremlin propaganda, in addition to its own pseudo-experts, uses a supporter of Putin's regime, former US Marine Brian Berletik. This "expert" in the English- and Russian-language information segments talks about the "Syrian scenario", saying that "the Ukrainian military is killing its own population in order to frame Russia". Berletik says that "'in this way the Ukrainians are trying to reduce the pace of the Russian army's advance. In the absence of real victories in combat operations, the enemy resorts to informational terrorism of the Ukrainian population. People exhausted by the war can form a false impression about the situation on the front. In Russia, in this way the Kremlin is trying to record in the information field the alleged "achieved goals of the special operation in Ukraine" in order to later pass off pseudo-facts as evidence of victory," the center said in its report. As a reminder, the comparison of the events in Ukraine with the events in Syria by Russian propagandists appeared as early as last week. for example, propagandists compared the tragedy in Ukrainian Bucha with the events in Syrian Duma, calling both cases a ruling.